Aurumgentum
Aurumgentum (shortened to AuAg) is one of Mana's stories. Initially inspired by the aesthetic of Final Fantasy XV and an odd concept of mixing 4 randomly generated character types (in AuAg's case, "prison bitch", "young pilot", "batman vigilante", and "motorcycle chick") into a similar plot. The story actually did not have a set plot for quite a while, but now has a basic plot for development. AuAg is Mana's attempt at a Dark Romanticism story, one she describes as being set in a futuristic cyberpunk society. Each character represents an element from a judgemental society. Chrisis Info Symbol The symbol for AuAg is the alchemical symbol for platinum. The title "Aurumgentum" is a mix of the Latin words for Gold and Silver respectively. The alchemical symbol for platinum is a mix of the symbols for gold and silver. The original symbol for AuAg had the crescent inside the symbol for gold, but it was changed to the symbol for platinum when Mana found out platinum was already a mix of the two symbols. The coloring for the symbol represents gold and silver. Although simply representing the metals, the Aurum Empire and Argentum Empire rulers have golden eyes and silver eyes respectively. Chris AuAg is one of the stories in which there are two Chrises. This is the only story so far in which the Chris variations do not resemble one another's appearance, they have different color schemes and heights. This is not the only story where the two Chrises are brothers, as this is found in Mana's story "Dragon Destiny" between the two characters Ultra and Aqua as well as DOTS: 5x5 where Callaina and Azureus consider themselves siblings. The two Chris variations are the Fulmen brothers, Ventus Fulmen and Nimbus Fulmen. Ventus is the "prison bitch" trope of AuAg. He is jokingly referred to as a "rat bastard", "prison bitch", and "stabby stab". He is the older brother of the Fulmens at age 21. In the dark romantic elements of AuAg though, Ventus resembles those being judged for having a mental illness. He is afraid of being seen as weak, hence his iconic "bastard" nature hiding years of trauma and canonical PTSD. Nimbus is the "young pilot" trope of AuAg. He is the youngest Chris variation at age 16, although Turquoise and Cobalt from DOTS: DD are only 3 years older than him at minimum age. Nimbus is one of the only protagonist Chrises. Due to his young age, Nimbus is one of the most "innocent" Chris variations. In the dark romantic elements of AuAg, Nimbus resembles those being judged for being young. Due to his young age, Nimbus is seen as naive and ignorant to the events around him as well as being put aside for the adult's own problems. Description A young pilot, a vigilante, a mechanic biker chick, and a prison bitch, seek to find out more information about a new plague virus outbreak threatening lives of various people across the two Metallum nations Argentum and Aurum, as well as looking into the effects of wrongful judgement against the people who deserve it the least. List of Characters Nimbus Fulmen Ventus Fulmen Caligo Tenebris Aurora Ignis Vepris Minerva Sentis Minerva Luna Tenebris Custodis Vindicta Gaia Argentum Gaius Aurum Aura Trivia * The entire creation of AuAg was based off of FFXV's aesthetic of naming characters after Latin words. * AuAg is one of the unfortunate stories named after their locations, others being the DOTSverse (District of the Stars) and Rivals of Prisma (Prisma). * The original plot of AuAg involved a small group of rebels, involving early versions of Caligo named Crow and a Chris variation named Frost. The original protagonist was a half-Aurum and half-Argentum military woman named Blackstar, named after the gemstone black star sapphire. It was scrapped due to triggering content. * Each member of the AuAg squad is based off of a simple item or concept. ** Nimbus is based off of a hat that reminded Mana of a pilot. ** Aurora is based off of the "biker chick" concept. ** Ventus is based off of knives. However, his technical inspiration comes from specific song vocals that reminded Mana of the vocalist "alone in a dark wet prison cell with their wet hair covering their eyes and fiddling with a knife." *** Ventus himself has very major musical inspirations. Initially he was inspired by MCR's "You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison" as well as MSI's "Mark David Chapman", leading into the idea of him being a prisoner with a thrill for danger and fighting. While listening to MSI's "Ala Mode", Mana got the idea to make him self-destructive and eventually inspired his PTSD. The song "Partners in Crime" by Set It Off inspired to make Vepris as a sort of female counterpart for him, and eventually the MCR song "Demolition Lovers" became a staple for their relationship and character arcs. * Due to the Dark Romantic inspiration for AuAg most inspired by The Scarlet Letter, Mana jokingly described AuAg as The Scarlet Letter "except Vepris Prynne comes in and punches Caligo Chillingworth out cold and starts a happy long life with the recovering Ventus Dimmesdale." * To summarize the roles of the cast in terms of the Dark Romantic parts of the story: ** Nimbus represents those judged for being young, wrongfully thought to be naive with problems not "important" yet due to being young. ** Ventus represents those judged for being mentally ill. ** Aurora represents those judged for their interests, as she has a punk aesthetic typically seen as belonging to edgy or rebellious teens. However, this may be changed to being judged for past mistakes. ** Vepris represents a beacon of hope, as it is when she returns where things go smoothly for the wrongly judged. ** Caligo represents bigotry, as his prejudice against the ones he judges becomes his downfall. * A small gag within the squad involve their nicknames, as they all have (intentionally) dumb sounding nicknames. Nimbus is Nimby, Ventus is Ven or Venny, Caligo is Cal, Vepris is Pris or Vep, and Aurora has no nickname as of yet. ** However, suggestions for Aurora's nickname include "Rora", "Aura", and "Rori". Aura may become the name of another character, though. * Another gag is Custodis Vindicta's name. Although mostly referred to as "Vindicta" or "Warden Vindicta", his name can be translated into "Warden Warden Revenge". * There was originally another 5th member of the main team named Lux who was scrapped due to triggering content. The name Lux was also originally going to be the name of the motorcycle girl, but was changed to Aurora. * Ventus and Vepris' ship name is "Venpris". ** While Vepris wasn't apart of the original cast of AuAg, her name was meant to compliment Ventus'. Using earth as the opposite to wind, Vepris' name means "thorn bush". ** While their relationship was inspired by the song "Partners in Crime" by Set It Off (featuring Ash Costello), their theme had shifted to by "Demolition Lovers" by My Chemical Romance. Ironically, both songs are about a criminal couple dying together. ** Vepris' other name ideas were Sentis and Minerva, in which Sentis was used for her mother's name and Minerva was used as her surname. * Shortly after Nimbus' name being confirmed, Ventus' name was the hardest to find. Ideas for Ventus' name involved the Latin words for "storm", "sword", and "night". The name Caligo was suggested by a friend. ** Aurora was also the hardest to confirm, not due to a lack of content, but too much. Some scrapped ideas for her name were Aurora Tempestas and Ignis Tempestas. Aurora was also the hardest to design, eventually settling on Belle Hidaka's albinism + purple eyes. * Ventus' murderous persona is based off of Season 0 Yami Yugi from YuGiOh. * Ventus used to have brown hair, but was changed to black to make him different from other Chris variations and fit better for the character. Nimbus still has brown hair. ** Ventus' bangs also originally didn't cover an eye, but was changed to make him look more punk and delinquent-like. * Caligo and the character Agent Silver from MAR are based off of the same character, Mysterion from South Park. Mana has gotten angry over the fact that Caligo (a newer OC) has more development than Agent Silver (in which MAR is one of the oldest stories Mana has had in development). Although based off of the same character, Caligo and Agent Silver are seen by Mana as completely different OCs. * Ventus and Caligo seemingly swapped roles, as Caligo was initially going to be a hero and Ventus being an anti-hero. Ventus was changed to be more of a hero and Caligo became an antagonist. * People of the Aurum Empire usually have warm colored eyes, and people of the Argentum Empire usually have cold colored eyes. * The Aurum Empire and Argentum Empire was initially going to be vague on being a futuristic alternative version of the Roman Empire, in which the empire never fell and thus continued to flourish, though is most likely uncanon due to both empires having American-inspired architecture and land.